Today Cassava and its by products e.g Garri,Fufu and Lafun are so commonplace one would be forgiven for thinking they have always been around and part of our culture. This is not so. Cassava is what is known as an "INTRODUCED" crop just like cocoa. It brought to AFrica from South America probably Brazil. Today Nigeria is the largest producer of Cassava and one of the largest for cocoa.

This perhaps explains why garri is more popular in the southernmost part of South West Nigeria i.e Ijebu than among the Oyo further up north who prefer amala or Ekiti who prefer pounded yam. Cassava is a new comer. Cassava however is a very easy crop to plant and farm and tends to me more productive which means in the long run cheaper.Yam requires a lot of attention and is vulnerable to pests and diseases making it a very demanding and expensive crop compared to cassava.

Cassava is a very hardy (rugged) crop and survives with little water and weeding. Today it is probably the most important carbohydrate crop in Nigeria. Those who have been to Brazil would have encountered a variant of Garri which is not sour like what we have in Nigeria but otherwise is the same Farinha de Mandioca

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxfnJaTAZxE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P11g6FT40-8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQf06tW30io

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAVR46v2v_w

that's good to know

that's a blatant lie.

smallrincowis16:
that's a blatant lie.

why do you feel so?

So what has our forefathers been eating#una too dey believe everything

i think everyone knows cassava was originally from south america.

it was introduced to africa some centuries ago.

unless there is evidence it was in Africa first before being rotated to SA and then back to Africa.

Clearly not everyone knows this. What is interesting though is the way it is processed into garri and farinha de mandioca in brazil. They do not ferment the cassava before and so it isnot sour like garri. I have tried it for drinking and it is just like garri in texture but the taste is not as tangy and it tends to swell more. I noticed there was no sand at the bottom of the .bowl
Also interesting is how they mechanized the process in the long video above

Its a similar process to the ones in nigeria except its a female industry in nigeria but seems to be a male industry in brazil.

same way akara is sold by females in nigeria but men prepare and sell it in the middle east.

Tomatos came frome there in south america, cocoa came from there also, many types of beans, various types of potatoes and corn/maize and other things..
South America is the source of the majority of food that allowed the world to explode into the development era..
The europeans went in and took a treasure trove of food culture which in turn allowed europeans to have the food production capacity to grow and develop in the way that they did... Meanwhile they systematically destroyed the south american natives and their rich heritage of many superior things..

Africa gets credit for the Yam and okra and groundnut... Ground nut has spread all over the world in a big way... Coffee came from africa and has also spread as a global staple...

Trust me, majority of the worlds most popular staple foods, come from south america... Potatos, beans, tomatoes, chocolate.... Almost every culture uses tomatoes for sauce topping..

I took those pictures in Peru, the food capital of the americas. Very ancient culture that developed undisturbed for thousands of years, so they evolved a very advanced agriculture base full of diverse crops.. They had the amazon jungle in their favor, very diverse plant environment

Mangoes from India along with peppers... Bananas and plantain came from that region of south asia also... Hot pepper may have come to africa long before europeans and likey originated in asia/india... Asians had rice and so did america, long before europeans reached out into the greater world to take whatever they wanted...

SA here means means South America, not South Africa.

omonnakoda:
It brought to AFrica from South America probably Brazil.

This perhaps explains why garri is more popular in the southernmost part of South West Nigeria i.e Ijebu than among the Oyo further up north who prefer amala or Ekiti who prefer pounded yam.

actually, it doesnt explain that, unless it was brought from somewhere else.

Why is it that whites can sha know how to lie. They should just say we have been surviving on red earth and air before they came. Mtchwwww...




Please tell me another story...